The web-based Expresso, spotted on Product Hunt, allows you to type or paste in text to see different metrics of your writing. Hit the "Analyze text" button to see things like what percentage of sentences are extra-long or short, which words are filler and which verbs are weak. After clicking different metrics, Expresso will highlight the corresponding text with different colors.

You can highlight different parts of text in Expresso. Here, weak verbs are blue and filler words are green.

IMAGE: EXPRESSO

Expresso, currently in beta, lets you closely examine how you write and how often you use certain types of words. By analyzing my own writing, I can see that I often use clustered nouns. What are clustered nouns? Expresso will tell you they are "three or more consecutive nouns." Hovering your cursor over any metric that you don't know will give you a concise explanation, so don't worry if you can't pick out a nominalization or modal on your own.

Expresso explains any writing metrics that might be confusing to non-English majors.

IMAGE: EXPRESSO

While Expresso gives you all these helpful extensive metrics, that's all it really does, so don't go uninstalling Microsoft Word. There are no options to format the text in any way or save it, so it's more of a handy tool that fits alongside a good text editor.

Expresso has an obvious appeal for writers, but it could also be a helpful for editors or teachers to quickly paste in text and catch weak parts that could be overlooked or get an idea for writers' different patterns.

WHAT IS ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY?

“Adaptive Technology refers to any item, piece of equipment, or product system, modified or customized, that is used to increase or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities to achieve greater independence. (29 U.S.C. Sec 22202).”

Adaptive Technology truly "opens the door" to life for people with disabilities. Moreover, it helps to compensate for the effects of disability such as loss of speech, paralysis, and visual impairment, cognitive problems, in an active and positive manner. It places the focus not on what is lost but on what is possible...what is constructive...what can be done! (Buning, 2008).”

Individuals with learning disabilities often have difficulty with skills that others take for granted. Reading, listening, organizing information or writing skills may improve significantly from the use of assistive technology.